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Hello, this is me!

Nur Imroatun Sholihat

Your friend in learning IT audit Digital transformation advocate a-pat-on-your-shoulder storyteller

About me

Hello

I'mNur Imroatun Sholihat

IT Auditor and Storyteller

So I heard you are curious about IT and/or auditing. I'm your go-to buddy in this exciting journey. My typical professional life consists of performing (and studying!) IT audit and leading the reporters of the award-winning magazine, Auditoria. Armed with a Master's in Digital Transformation from UNSW Sydney, I'm currently wearing multiple hats—ambassador at IIA Indonesia's Young Leader Community, mentor at ISACA Global, Head of Public Relations at MoF-Cybersecurity Community, and trainer at IIA Indonesia. You'll also find me sharing insights on my YouTube channel, speaking at seminars, and crafting content on LinkedIn. Let's connect and dive into the world of IT and auditing together!

experience

IT Auditor

2017-present

IT governance, cybersecurity, application--my daily struggle, seriously :D

Storyteller

2005-present

Writing keeps me sane :)

Content Creator

2020-present

Creating Youtube videos and LinkedIn posts, hopefully useful

IT Officer

2011-2015

performing IT services--sometimes about people forgot to plug their cords, sometimes serious incidents :p

Blog

365

 

If you are here right after I posted this, it means I’m on a flight to Sydney, the city I mentioned as one of my dreams since 2013 (please pray for me to land safely). Moving out of Jakarta this time, I realized that I’m in a constant search mode for a "home" all my life. I am leaving the only country I called home with mixed feelings, but most importantly thankfulness.

In early April, I received the information that I would be starting my master’s degree journey this very month (yes you read correctly). Supposedly to be great news, half of April 2022 turned out to be one of the toughest periods in my life. I have to prepare everything only in 18 days. And considering how bad I am toward goodbyes, every little melancholy doubled in weight.

However, now that I can join this Jakarta-Sydney trip, I can breathe easy while reminiscing all the struggles I had. I thought I would fail to meet the departure preparation deadline. I was a bit pessimistic about whether I could start the course this term. I lost count of how many times I said: “Should I just defer to the next term?” because the hurried preparation wasn’t comfortable at all if not seemed impossible.

Realizing how difficult to make the decision to move forward with the original plan or to defer, I performed istikhara prayer. As always, I don’t know and Allah knows. So I asked Him to guide me in deciding which option benefits me the most. I also asked Him to give me the strength to accept the decision whatever it was. It didn’t take long for Him to guide me to stick with the plan by making my heart suddenly feel stronger.

I was stronger but if I have to mention something that made tears sit in the corner of my eyes is how kind and helpful the people around me were. I then understood that when Allah says He does not burden a soul beyond what it can bear, He really means it. Your strength is not just your own force but the collective power of you and the people who helped you. That when He wanted to make you overcome the difficulties, He sends the helping hands--both from the expected and unexpected directions. Miraculously, the answer to the prayer started to fall into place. I finally could make it, even though still facing a lot of dramas until the very last time.

One day, a good friend of mine ever mentioned how important the little help given by other people was when she was in a tough period. That she appreciated the people who did even the simplest things so she could concentrate on something big she was facing. Now that I am in that period, I understand her statement wholeheartedly. That even someone waited for me to print my scholarship contract, which was sent to me at the end of the working hours, was a big intangible pat on my shoulder. I remember when that friend and I stepped out of the office, I wanted to say thousands of thank you if that wasn't wasting too much of my friend’s time. So I just smiled and promised that I will remember the kindness for all my life.

Maybe I never said millions of thanks but I’m eternally grateful for every little thing the people did. Some of you may know that I fear asking for help. No, it’s not that I aimed to be a fully independent woman. I just feel that being dependent is a luxury I couldn’t afford. Being accompanied is a wish I could only keep by myself. Therefore, I appreciate the people who offered me help without me asking for it first. Every little help you offered put me on the brink of tears. Even the smallest kindness would always be remembered. I am forever indebted to a lot of people this time around and I promised that I will not let everyone down. I will work hard so every effort the people spent on me wouldn’t go to waste.

I am willing to trade my one-year hard work to see your smiling faces. InsyaAllah I am just 365 days away from you all. Until that day, I will pray for our pleasant meetings in the future. Until then, please wait for me happily and healthily.

Thank you.

Thank you for being the ingredient of my happiness.

 

Love,

iim

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P.S.: During the preparation, I numbed myself because I didn’t have the luxury to pause and process my feelings. Ah, I am still that "pretend-to-be-tough" woman.  Now that I am finally on the plane, should I just cry? 😊 

Thank you for sending me off ☺(and for some people who didn't join this photo, you know I appreciated it not any less)

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image source: meer.com

DATA ANALYTICS IS OVERHYPED


“Through 2022, only 20% of analytic insights will deliver business outcomes.” (Gartner, 2019)

My take: It’s good to have a high ambition but more importantly to have the right ambition. It's good to start by "We want to have data analytics projects/use cases. What should we analyze?" (as long as business values are the objectives), but the better path is "This is our objective, thus X and Y values should be created. What analytics should we perform?"

My personal note: I know the title is a bit controversial. Please don't get me wrong. I always think data science is awesome. I am also a big supporter of analytics implementation. Here is just a piece of my thought on creating better analytics  :)

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Data is widely considered this century’s most valuable asset—beating oil, gold, and anything precious in world history. The attention has been gathered and the spotlight has been shone on its ability to drive business decisions. The four-letter word now has another buzzword: data-driven. 

The dream of becoming data-driven is basically on almost every organization's wish list. When an organization implements a data-driven approach, it means the strategic decisions are based on the analysis and interpretation of data. The insights, patterns, and anything behind the data will be uncovered to decide the actions. So now, that we have data (tons of it!), we all should jump to the analytics, right?

Unfortunately, history repeated itself. Data analytics, as its technological advancement predecessors, is treated as a black box: as if it, by itself, will magically solve all the problems.  In fact, the analytics process as a standalone is far from wizardry. There are a bunch of processes going behind the curtain to ensure that the results benefit us. There are a plethora of details that hold more meaning than the tools and techniques: data governance maturity, analytics strategy clarity, translation and communication effectivity to name a few--business objectives to name the paramount. 

In short, neither having data nor performing analytics sets an organization apart from the rest. The success indicator of analytics is not having use cases but gaining business value. Therefore, it should first and foremost be about action and value (Schmarzo, 2020). Values should always be the heart of every process, including analytics, performed by an organization. Consequently, every analytics should always be able to be converted into value. Value creation means we start our analytics with a clear vision. Always have a business improvement opportunity/problem statement in mind. Instead of wanting to have a data analytics project, ask ourselves, why do we want to have one? What problems/improvements do we want to get the answer about? Invariably, have an objective regarding what should be generated through a use case before creating one.

Many publications including Gartner reported that most analytics projects failed. Let’s not be surprised that the reason wasn’t that the organizations lack use cases/projects/techniques/tools. No, it was not. After careful observation, it was revealed that many organizations didn’t start with a clear vision and objectives. That particular approach is inherently prone to failure in delivering business outcomes.

In conclusion, always know what business value our organization wants to generate through analytics. The clearer our vision, the better.  From there, we know what data should we collect, the data governance maturity level should we aim for, which analytics strategy should we implement, and which use cases should be prioritized. (Yes, we have to prioritize them. It means, not every data set should be turned into a use case exactly now. Some can wait. Some can wait even longer.) 

Back to the title above: "data analytics is overhyped". It will continuously fail to keep up with the hype as long as it doesn't put "value creation" at the center. Ultimately, an organization should be value-driven at the core. Always. Without exception.

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References:

Schmarzo, Bill. 2020. The Economics of Data, Analytics, and Digital Transformation. Birmingham: Packt Publishing Ltd.

White, Andre. 2019. “Our Top Data dan Analytics Predicts for 2019". https://blogs.gartner.com/andrew_white/2019/01/03/our-top-data-and-analytics-predicts-for-2019/. Accessed on 26 March 2022

 

image source: umanitoba.ca

Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers (A Review)


If you only have 20 seconds to read this *wink as usual, don’t worry, I’ve already boiled down the insights into a sentence you can finish before your eyes blink thrice: to communicate data/numbers, give them emotions—angry number, happy number, tragic number, you name it.

THE BEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE

 

Whenever I feel blue, there is something that puts things into perspective: the knowledge that some of my best days haven’t happened yet….

Yesterday, my friend excitedly told me about Sabrina&Belva’s wedding: an event that gave us abundant feelings, most especially warm euphoria. We barely know them personally but it didn’t stop the sentiments from coming over us. As if Disney movies jumped into reality, a fairytale-like wedding does exist. We are sincerely happy about their marriage.

We then talked about how mysterious fate was. We simply don’t know what will happen in the future, even in the next second. For sure, Bina (Sabrina’s nickname) in the past didn’t know that in the future she would sit in one of the best colleges in the world i.e. MIT while at the same time marry one of the most eligible bachelors in the country i.e. Belva. (P.S.: my friend has adored Belva since a long time ago and I occasionally heard about his works and manners. It’s safe to conclude that whoever marries him is on cloud nine.).

We also discussed Allah's mightiness to unite a person with someone alike. Indeed good men are for good women and vice versa. The Natuno's co-founder had gone through a lot and worked hard to be the person she is today--the kind of woman who's made Belva fall head over heels for. So did Belva who has put his all to build a better education environment in Indonesia. When the time came for him to settle down, he eventually ended up with someone like Bina.

Above all, their story gave us bounded optimism about the future.

Subsequently, I remember a post that has helped me get a hold of myself, written by Omid Scheybani. He mentioned that anticipating all the upcoming small and big things was something that put him on stable ground. The notion that several best days in his life haven't happened yet has assisted him to overcome his sorrow.

The aforesaid notion affected me likewise. It’s comforting knowing that some of the most beautiful feelings of my life are waiting to happen. It’s uplifting to realize that sundry best days in my life will eventually come. The day I fall in love, the day I marry someone, the day I embarking my master’s degree journey, the day I become a mom, the day I perform hajj, the days I see my parents, brother, and friends’ best moments, and so forth. It’s a wonderful thought that some of the most beautiful days in my life haven’t happened yet. I will work on myself to be someone who deserves those delightful moments.

Lastly, barakallah for the wedding which gave a lot of people heartfelt emotion, Sabrina and Belva. Thank you for reminding me once again that inshaAllah the future holds a bunch of my finest moments. I have faith in Allah so I trust my journey. Even when sadness hits me, I would remind myself of this idea: some of the best days in my life are waiting for me. The best is yet to come so I should be patient. 

I believe there is happiness waiting in front of each of us after the long tiring days :)

 

Love,

iim

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The title above mirrored Omid's post title: The Best Days of Your Life

image source: twimg.com



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